Financial firm eyes big downtown lease

Jane Street Capital is mulling a deal for 150,000 square feet at Brookfield Place, the complex where a number of large tenants have either inked leases in recent weeks or are actively mulling such moves.

CoStar Group Inc.
Financial firm Jane Street Capital is thinking about signing a 150,000-square-foot lease at 250 Vesey St.

Nearly three years ago, Brookfield Properties lost one of its biggest tenants at its sprawling, 8 million-square-foot downtown office complex across West Street from the World Trade Center. That's when the Japanese financial institution Nomura left Brookfield Place for Worldwide Plaza in midtown, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of vacant square feet.

In recent weeks, the landlord has announced a series of deals to help fill that void. In what is likely to become another such transaction Jane Street Capital, which has offices at another Brookfield Properties-owned building in lower Manhattan, 1 New York Plaza, is in talks to relocate to 250 Vesey Street, one of the towers at Brookfield Place. In the process the financial firm will expand its footprint.

The firm, which occupies 20,000 square feet at 1 New York Plaza, according to CoStar Group data, is considering up to 150,000 square feet in the new location, a big expansion for the firm.

The probable deal is part of a wave of tenants who have inked deals for space downtown recently. Last week, Crain'sreported that MediaMath, a software company, is in negotiations to take up to 120,000 square feet at 4 World Trade Center, where it would become the property's first private-sector tenant.

Several big firms have either taken or are considering taking large blocks of space at Brookfield Place. Among the latter is Time Inc., which is said to be close to signing a lease for more than 600,000 square feet at the complex for its magazine business. And in the former category of done deals, law firm Jones Day recently inked a deal to lease over 300,000 square feet.

Brookfield has worked to update and improve the 25-year-old complex as state-of-the-art-office buildings have risen due east at the World Trade Center site. The company is nearing completion of a $250 million overhaul of the complex's more than 200,000 square feet in retail space. That renovation is expected to be finished next year.

Correction: Brookfield Place is a 25-year-old complex. That fact was misstated in an earlier version of this article published May 20, 2014.